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Manny Pacquiao’s Camp Takes Stupid Shot at Floyd Mayweather

Manny Pacquiao and his camp have had a brutal year. First they lost a poorly judged fight against Timothy Bradley. Then Juan Manuel Marquez knocked Pacquiao out in the sixth round of their much ballyhooed fourth bout. They will look to rebound against Brandon Rios towards the end of this year, however, by any fair metric, the past 12 months have been absolutely brutal for them.

You would think that a team that has gone through so many downs and so few ups in recent times would be hesitant to take shots at winning fighters and how they handle themselves.

Not so.

During a recent interview with ESPN, Freddie Roach questioned why Floyd Mayweather couldn’t knock his foe out this past weekend.

"I felt he could have knocked Guerrero out. But he doesn't take chances. He'll land one and get out," Roach noted.

Roach is a legend and by all accounts a great guy, but the lack of self-awareness here is startling. The reason why his fighters are known to take a lot of damage is precisely because they take too many risks. There was a noticeable change in Amir Khan’s style when he jumped ship. And in his last fight, Pacquiao was actually winning the match on every judge’s scorecard right up until he hastily walked into a well-timed punch from Marquez.

Roach wasn’t done critiquing, though.

"Mayweather proved he fights southpaws well,” he said. “I think you have to be more aggressive, put more pressure on him, smart pressure, you can't throw one at a time. You have to make a fight out of it, but it is hard to get him into a fight, he's such a great boxer. He's a little bit boring, I wish he was a better finisher. Five guys I was with literally fell asleep."

A little boring.

Mayweather’s last bout admittedly didn’t pack the same sort of entertainment punch as Pacquiao-Marquez IV did, but that was probably by design.